Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The next generation of AirPods

apple.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 187 posts

Re: The next generation of AirPods

#121

Post by MBCook »

jachee wrote: post #82
poulsbohemian wrote: post #76

I'm not intending to be flippant here - I love my AirPods and other Apple gear - but this reads like they took the AirPod Pros and rebranded them as the next generation of AirPod. I'm not seeing what's actually new here. Can someone in the know throw me a bone if there's something I'm overlooking?

I think for non-marketing technical folks, these are best described thus: “Here are the AirPods Pro internals translated to the regular AirPods form factor, without the noise-cancelling and modular-tips, for $50 less.”

And Find My built in in case you lose them.

Re: The next generation of AirPods

#122

Post by nzach »

xcambar wrote: post #99
enjoiful wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly until you try wireless, you won't understand just how much better the user experience is to not have a wire.

Honestly until you have to suffer battery problems, you won't understand just how much better the user experience is to have a wire. ;)

Having no battery on your headphone when you want to use it right now is extremely frustrating indeed.

However headphones with 50+ hours of playing time actually exist nowadays. And this makes life so much easier. Besides that I bought one of those charging cables where the tip is detachable[0] and use that to charge my headphone.

Even on linux things mostly works! Just remember to restart your machine after every system update and don't move your headset between devices. I only use linux so I don't know how true is that statement for other environments.

If you really need to use the same headphone for multiple devices you should look for a wired solution.

All in all I don't think wireless headphones have a worse user experience, it is just a tradeoff. And to be clear, both my headphones and my smartphone have a p2 jack. This is what I call having a cake and eating it too.

[0] - https://www.amazon.com/Terasako-Magnetic-Charging-Cable-5-Pa...

Re: The next generation of AirPods

#123

Post by criddell »

summm wrote: post #109
criddell wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like the iFixit people, but that article is pretty bad. One of the reasons this list as a failure is this: > People aren’t giving Apple back their phones, because old iPhones are worth dramatically more on the used market than the material cost Would they really rather see people recycling rather than reusing? Also, why would it have to make economic sense? Sometimes companies do things because it's the right thing…

If a company does something that is right, but loses money, shareholders will sue it.

Anybody can sue for any reason. Doesn't mean they will win.

Companies give lots of money to all kinds of causes that have no possibility of any financial return. Apple isn't special in this regard and they aren't getting sued for it.

Re: The next generation of AirPods

#124

Post by karmakaze »

philliphaydon wrote: post #2

I just discovered last week that on the Apple TV I can connect 2 apple audio devices at the same time. Currently staying with the in laws, daughter is sleeping in the same room with us so we couldn’t watch TV. I connected my wife’s AirPods to the Apple TV to watch tv and noticed I could connect another one, so I borrowed my sister in laws AirPods and connected them and both work at the same time. So now we can watch…

And vice-versa:

> AirPods require Apple devices running iOS 15.1, iPadOS 15.1, watchOS 8.1, tvOS 15.1, or macOS Monterey, all available as free software updates next week.

Re: The next generation of AirPods

#125

Post by doublepg23 »

etrautmann wrote: post #116
xcambar wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly until you have to suffer battery problems, you won't understand just how much better the user experience is to have a wire. ;)

I was on this boat too until the Airpods pro. I'm much happier without the wire in virtually all cases, despite occasional bluetooth hiccups

>Bluetooth hiccups.

I have AirPods Pro and I’m impressed with how amazing they are (I have a pair of LCD-X, I’m particular about audio equipment). One funny side efffect of using 2.4GHz Bluetooth is when I use the old microwave at work it makes my connection choppy and unusable. Quite funny figuring that out until it occurred to me ;)

Re: The next generation of AirPods

#126

Post by doublepg23 »

TheGRS wrote: post #31
somedude895 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, I did not know my headphones could do that! What's this announcement then if this is already possible?

At the end of the day it's still 2 speakers. I get doing spacial audio effects on a soundbar, but for headphones its all just how well you can translate the effect to 2 close speakers.

Fwiw you only have two ears.

Re: The next generation of AirPods

#127

Post by doublepg23 »

wsinks wrote: post #26
matsemann wrote: post #21

What is spatial audio? That the sound sounds like it has an origin? If so, why is it useful/wanted?

Imagine having a surround sound system. Now put on your headphones and you still have that surround sound system. That's why it's useful / wanted. Video gamers use spatial audio to know where that person shooting at them is. Audio listeners like the illusory effects of panning around their head. ASMR listeners like how it can sound exactly like someone is scratching their head because the sound has origin. Movie prod…

> ASMR

Do you have any links of ASMRists using Spatial Audio?

Re: The next generation of AirPods

#128

Post by WastingMyTime89 »

xcambar wrote: post #97
mongol wrote: post #88

I like my wired, ordinary earphones. They are low tech, cheap and reliable. When I pick them up from my pocket, I may have to spend a few moments to untangle then, but it is usually just a few seconds. After some months the wires start to go bad. Then I use a new pair. But such a pair costs very little. I don't know what I am missing, but I think I would be frustrated if expensive wireless earphones run out of batter…

Headphones are the use case I use the most to introduce people (usually younger people and students) to the benefits of low tech and overall to the benefits of less. I strongly agree with you. My headphones are 10€, last forever and I have 2 pairs in a drawer. I'm still 100€ below the cheapest airPods and no one ever complained. My phone is 5 years old, but since it does what I want: email, WhatsApp/Signal, Spotify,…

> My headphones are 10€, last forever and I have 2 pairs in a drawer.

Amusingly and while I have never used airpod and generally get the gist of your idea, headphones are probably one of the product with the largest difference between entry level and mid-range in my experience . I can’t hear the difference between a 100$ and a 1000$ headphone but the 10$ one is easy to spot.

Re: The next generation of AirPods

#129

Post by doublepg23 »

josephg wrote: post #80
jjallen wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, in three years with the Pros now (or whatever it is -- 2-3), I have basically never run out of batteries. You can always put one in the charger to charge while the other stays out.

Yeah I’ve had my pros for about 2 years now and I’ve clocked an obscene number of minutes of phone & zoom calls on them through the pandemic. Some days I was doing 12+ hours of calls on them. The batteries last a bit over 3 hours and after all this time they’re still going strong. Except for handoff being janky, I’m delighted with them. Im frankly confused with this announcement - it seems like they just rebranded Ai…

This lacks noise canceling. It has a new design and added MagSafe compatibility.

Re: The next generation of AirPods

#130

Post by mportela »

taurath wrote: post #102

No ear caps is instant no buy for me - I literally cannot keep the previous AirPods in my ear and if I do it causes aching, while I can use the pro’s without issue. Or is it just a refresh of the original AirPods?

For me, it's the exact opposite: my ears are too small, so ear caps give me bruises and make the earphones fall all the time.

It fascinates me to see how people can have completely different experiences for a product as basic as an earphone.

Post reply on HN